Our day today started off with a tour of the beautiful Hungarian Parliament building. We were a little leery of the visit at first because a piercing fire alarm was being "tested" right when we got there, but fortunately they turned it off as we were starting the tour. One of the highlights of the tour was the chance to see the crown jewels. Amazingly enough, even today scholars cannot determine how the crown was made because the different metals that are adhered to each other require different temperatures to join. We also got to see the Hungarian version of the "changing of the guard." We played it safe and didn't try to make the guards crack like you're supposed to do in London. (The fact that these guys had giant swords may have had something to do with it!)
After the tour of the Parliament building, we boarded the bus for a relatively short city tour of some sites that we had not yet seen up close. We started at the Szechenyi Bath, which is probably the most famous of all of the Hungarian therapeutic baths. I think some people are going to go and try them out during our free afternoon tomorrow. We then walked to Heroes' Square, which provided the great picture opportunity above.
Our tour ended in the Budapest Castle area where we had the great view overlooking the Danube River with the city on each side (Buda on the left and Pest on the right). Unfortunately we couldn't easily get a group picture at the lookout because what seemed like the entire Japanese nation descended on the overlook area at the same time as us.
After the tour we had a free afternoon and evening. Many of us went shopping at the central market before it closed at 3pm, while some others stayed and the castle and a few caught up on some much needed sleep.
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